they sail to florida. they had the good sense to go to florida in june as opposed to massachusetts in december. they sailed 50 years before the mayflower. there were french huguenots compressed into were escaping the same strife and persecution in france, but they are nowhere mentioned in any of my childhood history books. they founded the colony known as fort caroline off of what is now jacksonville, florida. about a year later they were not thriving but surviving. certainly planning to stay there. that is when the spanish king sent and hamel over because he wanted to be rid of these protestant pirates essentially who were camped out in florida. that is why st. augustine was founded. it is not really a story that st. augustine tells a great deal about when you were there, but if you drive 17 miles south of st. augustine you will find another national historic site called fort the causes. the spanish word for slaughter because of these french protestants were slaughtered by the spanish who founded st. augu